Identifying And Using Your Spiritual Gifts

Title: Identifying and using your Spiritual gifts

Central idea: God gives each of you at least one Spiritual gift to use for His Glory.

Specific purpose: to persuade the congregation that each has a Spiritual gift to use for the God's Glory.

Scripture: I Corinthians 12:1-12

We have all seen the stormy love-hate relations Republicans and Democrats have. On his deathbed, a lifelong Republican announced that he was switching to the Democrat Party. His closest friend responded, “I cannot believe you are even considering this. You have been a staunch Republican your entire life. What on earth could make you want to be a Democrat?” The dying man responded, “Because there will be one less Democrat when I go.”

Many of us have seen such ridiculous battles fought by both diehard Democrats and diehard Republicans. Sometimes politicians fight because of a lack of information, because of different belief systems, and other times their egos prevent them from working together. People are people. In the church at Corinth, spiritual gifts had become a battleground. This tension resulted from an overemphasis on certain gifts.

The Corinthian church had many problems, difficulties, divisions, and arguments. There was confusion about marriage, food sacrificed to idols, worship, the Lord’s Supper, and the Resurrection. In particular, some people thought they were more important than others because they had some spectacular gifts. When Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth, he addressed these issues.

1 Corinthians 12:1-12 gives us six directives that end division in a church. "1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

First, Paul wants us to know about Spiritual Gifts. Notice verse 1 of chapter 12, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” This topic is too important for believers to be uninformed about and it is certainly too critical to fight about.

What are spiritual gifts? They are divine abilities distributed by the Holy Spirit to every believer according to God’s design and grace for the common good of the Body of Christ, the Church. A spiritual gift is the ability to solve a Christian, a church, problem by activating a particular principle and promise given in the Holy Word.

There is a difference between natural abilities and spiritual gifts. God gave you natural gifts as he formed you in the womb. You developed your natural abilities as your mother and father taught you, as you got your education and learned a job skill. It took you years to perfect and yet you are still learning. At your conversion, the Holy Spirit gave you at least one spiritual. I break that down into two categories: At Pentecost, people witness each in his or her language. There were times when the early Christians performed miracles. Occasionally, we hear of such events today but that happens far less often than in the early days of Christianity. The Holy Spirit gives gifts but, just as with natural gifts, you must sharpen them by studying the Word, coming to church, Sunday school, Bible study, prayer, and putting them to use.

Paul says that the Holy Spirit gave gifts to the apostles that were critical to the church in its embryonic stage, “The things that mark an apostle - signs, wonders, and miracles - were done among you with great perseverance.” (2 Corinthians 12:12) 1 Corinthians 13:8 suggests that while many of these gifts are permanent, other gifts ceased to function, “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”